THE INDIAN AND. ORIENTAL ISLANDS. HI 



pepper, camphor, the tropical fruits, gold, and excellent diamonds, 

 The famous ourang-outang is a native of this country, and is thought^ 

 of all irrational beings, to resemble a man the most. The original 

 inhabitants live in the mountains, and make use of poisoned darts ; but 

 the sea-coast is governed by Mahommedan princes. The chief port 

 of this island is Benjar-Masseen, and carries on a commerce with all 

 trading nations. 



SUMATRA has Malacca on the north, Borneo on the east, and 

 Java on the south-east, from which it is separated by the Straits of 

 Sunda ; it is divided into two equal parts by the equator, extending 

 five degrees and upwards north-west of it, and five on the south-east 5 

 and is 1000 miles long and 100 broad. This island produces so much 

 goid that it has been thought to be the Ophir* mentioned in the scrip- 

 tures ; but Mr. Marsden in his late history of the island, thinks it was 

 unknown to the ancients. Its chief trade with the Europeans is in 

 pepper. The English East India company have two settlements here-, 

 Bencoolen and Fort Marlborough, from whence they bring their chief 

 cargoes of pepper. The king of Achen is the chief of the Mahom- 

 medan princes who possess the sea coasts. The interior parts arc 

 governed by pagan princes : and the natural products of Sumatra are 

 pretty much the same with those of the adjacent islands. 



Rain is very frequent here ; sometimes very heavy, and almost al- 

 ways attended with thunder and lightning. Earthquakes are not un- 

 common, and there are several volcanoes on the island. The people 

 who inhabit the coast are Malays, who came hither from the penin- 

 sula of Malacca ; but the interior parts are inhabited by a very differ- 

 ent people, and who have hitherto had no connection with the Euro- 

 peans. Their language and character differ much from those of the 

 Malays ; the latter using the Arabic character. The people between, 

 the districts of the English company and those of the Dutch at Pa~ 

 limban, on the other side of the island, write on long narrow slips of 

 the bark of a tree, with a piece of bamboo. They begin at the bottom*, 

 and write from the left hand to the right, contrary to the custom of 

 other eastern nations. These inhabitants of the interior parts of Su- 

 matra are a free people, and live in small villages called Doosans, in- 

 dependent of each other, and governed each by its own chief. All of 

 them have laws, some written ones, by which they punish offenders^ 

 and terminate disputes. They have almost all of them, and particu- 

 larly the women, large swellings in the throat, some nearly as large 

 as a man's head, but in general as big as an ostrich's egg, like the 

 goiters of the Alps. That part of this island which is called the Cassia 

 country, is well inhabited by a people called Battas, who differ from 

 all the other inhabitants of Sumatra in language, manners, and cus- 

 toms. They have no king, but live in villages independently of each 

 other, and generally at variance with one another. They fortify their 

 villages very strongly with double fences of camphor-plank, pointed, 

 and placed with their points projecting outwards ; and between these 

 fences they place pieces of bamboo, hardened by fire, and likewise 

 pointed, which are concealed by the grass, but which will run quite 

 through a man's foot. Such of their enemies whom they take prison- 

 ers they put to death and eat ; and their sjtulls they hang up as tro- 



* There is a mountain in the island which is called Ophir hy the Europeans,, 

 jse summit, above the level of the sea, is 13,842 feet, exceeding in height the 

 iVakofTeneriffeby 577 feet, ' 



